In 1984 the International Electronics Reliability Institute (IERI) at
Loughborough University ofTechnology (LUT), then the component technology group
(CfG), started to address the problem of collecting field reliability information and
storing it in a database in order to provide analysis of the way in which components
and systems behave in the field. This database was devised by the members of CTG
with the assistance of a number of industrial partners. The database was created and
stored on the university's mainframe computers.
In 1988 these computers were replaced with more modem equipment which
was no longer compatible with the initial version of the database and so the database
was re-implemented using a new hardware/software combination. At this time the
opportunity was taken to review the choice of database management system, the
structure of the data, the database administration and operation and the forms of data
analysis performed. This thesis describes this review and re-implementation process.

Description:

A Master's Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of Master of Philosophy of Loughborough University.